DnD Ecology

[Agback]

I've thought about it, but since I most wanted to do Australia, I realized it would probably involve creating a lot of monsters from scratch if I wished to stay somewhat true to the 'flavor' of the ecology.

You could get a lot of inspiration from Australian palaeontology. http://www.lostkingdoms.com/facts/index.cfm

 

[Agback]

Australia is all about snakes, spiders, crocodiles, sharks and flies

You forgot goannas. And stinging nettles forty feet high known to be lethal on contact (Dendrocnide excelsa).

 

[Odysseus]

My problem with this type of thing is the players frame of reference. You always have to work with something the players can relate to. So everything boils down to its like australia, and thats if they notice.

 

[fusangite]

Out of curiosity I'm wondering if anyone ever moves the default ecology of their game away from the normal mash of northen europe and north america? So instead of squirrels, bears and wolves you might shift to India with tigers, monkeys, cobras and elephants.

Yes. I ran one two-year campaign which felt medieval except that it was set in a civilization in an environment based on the high veld of present-day Zimbabwe. Not only did we have very different animals around but the game tended to culminate each season with the arrival of the annual rains.

My current campaign is set in Mormon North America in the 13th century so it includes cumoms (mastodons), elephants, cureloms (giant sloths) and the usual North American animals minus the European imports. The travellers are still freaking out over the giant mutant corn.

More interesting still is the idea of actually thinking through different ecological principles that underlie these environments. I'm a big fan, as some here know, of looking to more ancient ideas of how ecology works because, of course, Darwin can't explain the D&D world very well.

 

[DragonLancer]

Out of curiosity I'm wondering if anyone ever moves the default ecology of their game away from the normal mash of northen europe and north america?

I've never felt comfortable with that. In my mind D&D is mostly Euro-centric and thats where IMO/IMX it works best. Saying that, I've heard of some excellent games set in other world areas.

Or something even more exotic like North America of 55,000 years ago withh all the now extinct mega-fauna. After all, if we can have dinosaurs why not giant sloths?

I did consider this once upon a time, but decided that while it was a cool idea it wouldn't hold the group's attention for very long.

 

[DMH]

Not for fantasy, but I did have a bookmark to someone who statted up the animals from Dixon's After Man and The New Dinosaurs. IIRC it was for second edition and I have long since lost the bookmark. That was a cool idea- take a bit from Man After Man and tie it into After Man (humans leave and then come back). And it wouldn't be hard to flesh out the remaining important animals.

 

[Graybeard]

My game is set in a mediteranean like area. I have countries with ecologies similar to Italy, Greece, Egypt, etc. I use a variety of creatures since I also have arenas in all the major cities. Sometimes these creatures escape

The gods are also very active in my world so anything is possible.

 

[Snapdragyn]

Australia is all about snakes, spiders, crocodiles, sharks and flies - all of which come in the MM (well except flies maybe)

And drop bears, & bunyips, & dire quolls, & giant dunnarts, & dire thorny devils, & fiendish flying-foxes, & dire emus!

wombat = badger, koala = um, possum - dire squirrel and Tasmanian devil = dire wolverine (Tasmanian Tiger = Wolf)

Dunno about the possum as squirrel bit, but the other suggestions aren't bad.

the Mega-fauna can be anything you like (so Giant Wombat = Rhinoceros), Killer Kangaroo = Grey Render and Australian Fly = Stirge

Actually there's a giant wombat (though they use the paleontological name) in one of the recent enviro books, Sandstorm IIRC.

 

[Numion]

My campaign is all a crapshoot when it comes to ecology. I tend to drop Dungeon adventures where the campaign's happening, so if this means crodolines in a pine forest swamp, so be it

 

[Evilhalfling]

My campaign (not that I run it under D&D) is set in a tropical archipelago that is in many ways similar to the East Indies (except lacking a monsoon). Tigers, leopards, saltwater crocodiles, elephants, water buffalo, nilbuck etc. That also means rice paddies instead of wheat and barley fields.

Mine is similar, except that they are now in the middle of the monsoon season, and all the large predators were eaten by dragons. (It has a lot of dragons)
the people mostly live underground and grow fungus as crops.
I guess its not that similar